things too sweet to survive
by thinkatory
Summary: Edward is meant for Alice, and Bella is meant for both of them. A rather complicated love story.


Note: This is a retelling of Twilight, where Jasper is not a member of the Cullen coven; Alice Cullen is Alice Hale, and she and Edward are married as Alice and Jasper were. Enter Bella, a la canon, and... things get interesting.

**things too sweet to survive**

Alice Hale has been sure of so many things for a very long time. It comes with the territory of precognition, of second sight. She knows if this happens, then that happens; she knows if she does this, then there will be that consequence. This is the way her mind works. All scenarios are there, except for the rare few...

But she doesn't like to think of those.

It's been one hundred years, more, that they've all been turned and living (_un-living?_ she wonders, with some amusement) here and there, a cycle of travel across the country, the world. It's been one hundred years since Edward has been turned, more, but he's still withdrawn. He still spends so much time alone. It pains her to see him this way, and she wishes there was some way she could use her visions, let him see them, to show him there's a better way.

But there's no way to show him a future down a path he'll never decide to take.

They've arrived in Forks, Washington, again. It's a comfortable place, warmer than Alaska, less isolated than so many of the other homes they have. She and Emmett are the only ones of Carlisle's children who feel better in a place like this; Rosalie and Edward would sooner bury their heads in the sand and pretend that humanity doesn't exist at all.

Alice is under no delusion that this is because of the difficulty of, as Esme says, "living off of the land," or as Emmett quips, "being vegetarian." This is about not wanting to be reminded about what's been lost, despite all that's been gained.

She strokes Edward's cheek as he lays beside her in their bed. He glances at her, sees into her head, and she just smiles at him. "School tomorrow," she says softly.

"Yes," he says, and the corner of his mouth turns up, wryly. "Biology again."

"You'd have us live in the woods alone, wouldn't you? No people, ever again," she teases him gently.

"As if you'd let us." A smile starts, just barely, on Edward's face. "People are more interesting to you, aren't they?"

She presses a kiss fondly to his forehead. "We're such creatures of habit, Edward. We don't change. That's what we are. They're... always changing."

"Yes," he says, and nods. "They're freer than we are."

"I don't think that's true," Alice starts.

Edward glances up at her again. "Isn't it?"

"We may be alone, but at least we have each other," she says. She thinks of everything she lost, that she can't even truly name. She doesn't frown, she doesn't tell him, because he knows. "We might be dead to everyone who cared before. But we don't need anyone else. Do we?"

"No," Edward says, hesitantly, but he moves closer to her, and kisses her mouth. Her lips turn up despite herself. "Why are you smiling?"

The truth is just fine, right now. "Because I think you just implied you'd like a friend."

"Oh, friends," he says, dismissive. "Who needs them?" He's on top of her before she can think twice about it.

She giggles when he pins her wrists to the bed. "Oh, don't," she chides him.

"Don't what?" he teases her.

"You know what!"

He laughs and even though dawn is softly breaking over their home (for now), they indulge once more in some playful fooling around, her playing happy distraction to his practical mind, him always there for her who's been so alone, husband and wife.

* * *

Something changes.

Alice feels it shift in her head, and then the vision comes, hits her like a truck might, knocks the mental wind out of her. She's in class, but she's suddenly drowning in the image, fingers tangling in a meadow, one hand, and another, and she sees Edward laughing, and a girl.

There's a girl. She has long dark hair and a pallor to rival the Cullen-Hale clan, and somehow, though Alice has never seen her before, she recognizes her. She recognizes the sideways tilt of her mouth, the hesitation to smile, the chewed but painted nails of the fingers Edward is toying with, and there, on the other side of the girl, is Alice; she presses a kiss to the other girl's hand.

She stares ahead at the blackboard as the vision fades. The teacher doesn't seem to notice. Her wrist is weak from her leaning her chin onto it for too long. She sits up, stretches, and the bell rings. To the next class.

Something's happened with Edward. He's met this girl. She knows, the way she always does. This girl, who makes Edward smile and lets the Cullens anywhere near her after a touch of their cold hands; what is she? Is she one of them?

_No, _Alice decides. _She can't be. _Her hand was – will be – warm in Alice's hand. She's alive.

For some reason this is incredibly exciting. Exhilarating, she thinks. She doesn't remember the last time she let herself close enough to a human to touch for all that long. For so long she didn't trust herself, and then once she did, she was too alien to them to risk discovery by being too close for too long.

Is it possible they could be accepted for who they are by this human girl?

Alice stops in the hallway as Edward stalks to her, less distracted by him than by the girl who rushes past both of them, clumsily. The girl with the dark hair and thin pale face, who looks at no one in the crowd of people, and she turns to Edward immediately, to ask in a whisper, "Who is she?"

"No one," Edward says, in a rushed, strained whisper. "Not now."

Alice nods, and squeezes his hand, the most she can do in public. "It's okay," she reassures him.

He doesn't look convinced. "Later," he says, simply, and goes to his next class.

She sighs. Men. One might think they would get easier to live with after one hundred years to convince them towards more reasonable ways, but they're not wrong about old dogs and new tricks. Edward is Edward, and that's why she loves him.

* * *

_The first thing she sees is him. She doesn't see his face, she feels her hand in his, she hears indistinct words spoken softly into her ear. All she knows is she's not alone. She's been wandering for so long, but she's not alone._

_When she opens her eyes, her chest doesn't rise. She's hungry. She doesn't remember, but she knows, in her bones, that she has lost so, so much. And she is so very terribly hungry._

_But he'll be there. Someday soon. She'll find him, and there's something else there, something indistinct – _

_There is the undeniable, delicious scent coming from the street, a cacophony of heartbeats._

_No._

_She runs._

* * *

"Tell me everything," Alice demands as soon as they're in the car, the doors shut. "Who is she? I saw her! I think I've seen her before – "

"Please," Edward interrupts, abruptly, uncomfortably. She looks at him, confused, as he goes on. "Just – stop." He starts the car, and goes to back up, but someone is in the way.

"Um," Alice starts, "did I do something wrong?"

"No – Alice – " He stops abruptly. "Did you _smell _her?"

"I was a little distracted," she admits. "Why?"

"She's special." He pauses, awkwardly. "Like you were."

Her eyebrows rise. "But you never – "

"She's special," Edward repeats, firmly. "Like us."

Alice pauses, surprised, somehow relieved. "That... that might explain it. What is she like, what did she think?"

It's a usual question, so it's strange that it trips him up. "That's – that's it, Alice."

"What?" she asks, puzzled.

"I couldn't hear her." He goes to pull out of the parking spot. "Dead silence."

Alice is still the type to smile at that kind of terrible pun, but this is beyond intriguing. "_Really_."

"Alice, this is serious," Edward chides her. "What if someone goes after her? Someone who isn't... vegetarian?"

"We'll deal with that as it comes." She touches the hand that's on the shift briefly. "For now, we need to talk to her."

Edward immediately turns to Alice, appalled. "No!"

"Yes," Alice insists.

"Absolutely not."

"I saw her!" she argues. "I saw her with us. She's important. You made a choice, even if you're too stubborn to admit it, Edward."

"I didn't make any choice," Edward says, evading her gaze, then says petulantly, "I'm serious."

"Oh, you always are," Alice says, only half-joking.

Edward gives her a long-suffering look, then he turns on the music, soft classical piano, and she decides not to argue any further on the way home.

* * *

Alice goes stiff and silent at the lunch table as another vision takes her, and when she comes back to herself she finds that Edward's taken her hand to distract anyone who might be looking.

"Oh my god," she says all in a rush, and whispers to the others. "Something's going to happen."

"Okay, yeah, what?" Emmett asks, casually tossing his apple in the air and catching it again.

"Stop playing with your food," Rosalie says, though she's too bored with trying to corral Emmett to bother much further than that. "What is it? Is it those dogs again?"

"You know I can't see them." Alice shakes her head. "No, it's. There's going to be an accident. A car. I mean, a car accident, and Bella Swan, she'll... be hurt, I think."

"Who?" Rosalie asks, surprised.

Edward's gaze is immediately on Alice, and the expression on his face is that he's searching her mind, and she nods swiftly once it seems to dawn on him. "I don't know when, Edward, but – "

"Fine," he says, in an irritated undertone. "Of course a girl like that wouldn't be able to take care of herself."

"Just be careful," Alice tries to tell him.

"I know," Edward says, petulant again.

"You're not listening to me."

"You'd think a guy who spends half of his time reading minds wouldn't spend so much time in his own," Emmett notes.

Edward rolls his eyes. "I'm not in my own head."

"Then talk," Emmett suggests.

Edward throws a piece of lettuce at him. "Not to you."

"Hey, be nice to the lettuce," Emmett says. "After all. We're vegetarians."

Rosalie barely stifles a laugh, then it's infectious, and Alice is giggling, and even Edward is having some difficulty scowling.

_I love you, _she thinks at him._ It'll be okay._

She can see it in his eyes, that he hears her, and he almost believes her. It's a start.

* * *

"You what?" Rosalie asks loudly over the dinner table the night after it happens. "You saved her from a broken leg or something because she, what, batted her eyelashes at you?"

"She did not bat her eyelashes at me," Edward says, irritated.

"Oh, shut up," Alice tells him, and turns to the others. "She was going to get seriously hurt, and she's – she's – Rose, she's _important,_ I can tell."

"Why is she important, then?" Rosalie presses. "What good is she to us? She's just one of them."

"I don't think she's – she – " Alice's head hurts. "I don't think she'll be one of them for long."

"Are you seeing something else?" Esme asks her, gently.

"No." Alice shakes her head, uncertain. "I'm... Edward, tell them."

Edward hesitates. "Alice," he starts, but she levels a stern look at him, and he goes on. "She's... sweet. She smells sweet. She's amazing. And if I've noticed..."

Carlisle doesn't move, but his expression changes, and everyone notices, and falls silent. "You think she may be hunted," he supposes.

"The way you said I was," Alice says, softly. "Yes."

Carlisle nods, and looks at Edward, who is still and almost unreadable. "Then we'll have to protect her," he says, and Esme nods, her hand in Carlisle's.

"Awesome," Emmett says, cheerfully. "Does this mean we get to take James out?"

"That could be fun," Rosalie admits.

"Be serious," Edward tells them, and though Emmett tries one of Edward's scowls back at him, his face doesn't change, which is proof he's worried enough. Alice just holds onto his hand, and thinks of the warm hand against her lips in a sunlit meadow.

* * *

Alice is comfortably reading Cosmo when Edward starts out of the house, and she tosses the magazine out to follow him. "Seattle?" she questions him, hugging her cardigan around herself. "Or Port Angeles?"

"Wherever," Edward says, impatient, restless. "I don't think it's a good idea for her to be in the city alone."

"She's not alone, you said," Alice persists. "You said she's going with friends."

"Do they really count?" Edward asks rhetorically.

She sighs. "Oh, you sound like Rosalie now."

"We're going. Or I'm going. Get in the car if you want."

Alice climbs into the Volvo without asking any further questions.

* * *

"_Get in_," Edward demands of the poor pale girl standing on the city street, again in danger, in the open.

Alice seizes her hand to pull Bella into the backseat, and shuts the door behind her, who is still plainly in shock. "Hi," she says, more amiably. "I'm sorry that Edward doesn't know how to speak to people. You think he might by now."

"Alice," Edward says, warning.

"Oh, stop it. She's young."

"I'm your age," Bella points out, some color coming back into her face.

That's when it hits Alice. The scent. It's overwhelming. She wants to shove the dark hair off of Bella's neck and just drink until there's nothing left. She wants to tear her apart, but that would be a waste, so she would have to be economical, she –

She comes back to herself, stunned. She hasn't had that kind of hunger since the first day.

Bella is staring at her. "Are you all right?" she asks, hesitant.

"I'm fine," Alice says immediately, and smiles. Edward glances back at her, and she sends him a warning look. "I was just... I'm worried about you."

Bella is dubious, obviously. Who can blame her? "Edward didn't mention he was bringing you."

"Well." Alice remains upbeat. "I like coming with him on drives. He sometimes even talks." Edward grumbles. "Also, I've been hearing about you! So much gossip, Bella. I'm Alice, we haven't met!"

"Alice Hale, right?" Bella nods, and shakes her hand, cautiously. Then she looks down at Alice's hand, and Alice doesn't let her expression change. "Pleased to meet you."

"Likewise." Alice laughs. "Edward, we should get some dinner for her, don't you think?"

"On our way," Edward confirms.

Bella glances at him, then back to Alice, and sudden embarrassment crosses her face. "I didn't – it's okay. I'm fine, I'm not hungry."

"Of course you are," Alice says. "It's fine, it's not a problem."

Edward grips the steering wheel at the exchange, and Alice doesn't have to read minds to know that _not knowing_ Bella's subtext is killing him.

"Don't mind him. He's just like that," she says to Bella, freely, and grins when the girl starts to smile back at her.

She's beautiful.

* * *

There are serious things going on – someone, probably James, is hunting Bella – but Alice is stuck on the fact that she completely understands, because Bella is fascinating. She tries not to look at Bella for too long, but all Alice can think of is the vision, the fall of sunlight on her face, the sweet taste of her skin, the rightness of being where they are. The three of them. Bella is uncomfortable, Edward is uncomfortable, but Alice feels right, totally right.

"You don't need to try so hard," Bella says to Edward, after he sends the waitress off in a tizzy.

"I'm not trying," Edward says patiently.

"Shut up," Alice advises him, and turns her focus back to Bella. "I'm sure you have questions."

"Right," Bella says, suddenly. "Maybe you'll answer my question. He probably won't. He just keeps being sarcastic at me."

"Like I said, that's how he is. But I'll try," Alice agrees.

Bella leans over to her, watching Edward, who's watching her. Alice tries not to smile too obviously at what's going on. "How... I mean..." She pauses, obviously embarrassed again. "Your brother saved me."

Alice nods, as though this is a given. "I know, I heard. And my father stitched you up."

"And then again tonight, both of you," Bella goes on, searching Alice's face for something. Alice decides she likes Bella's eyes, and mouth, and... she's getting distracted. "Why do you keep helping me?"

"Well, we like you," Alice says simply.

"But you haven't met me yet," Bella protests. "And – Edward – he keeps saying I can't be friends with him, because – well, I'm not really all that clear on why not, he keeps talking around it."

"I don't think you want to know why," Edward interjects.

"Like that," Bella points out to Alice. "He keeps saying things like that. I don't really think – well – unless – " She hesitates, and puts her face in her hands.

"Hey, hey." Alice touches her arm, and it's almost electric, the feel of her pulse still racing. She pulls her hand away, but Bella's looking up at her, just barely, and it's something. "There's a really good reason you shouldn't be friends with either of us. But we're still here for you."

"For what?" Bella demands, then claps a hand over her mouth. "Sorry, I just – I don't get it," she says, finally, as Edward fixes his gaze on her.

"It's a matter of your safety," Edward says, directly. "We don't want you to get hurt."

"I get hurt all the time. I'm clumsy and impulsive and that's the kind of thing that happens to me everywhere," Bella says, a little frustrated. "Even back in Phoenix. Alice, just tell me. What's going on?"

"I don't think you'd believe me if I did," Alice says honestly, quietly.

Bella stares at her, and Alice feels a thrill of fear. It's a huge risk. But she doesn't think Bella is going to run. It all depends on the choice she makes in this moment, if that vision will come true. "I don't want to eat," she says, in the same soft voice. "Can we go and talk somewhere private?"

"You need to eat," Edward says, in his direct way.

Bella nods abruptly at that. "Don't you?" she asks out of nowhere.

"We ate before we came here," Alice says smoothly. "You really should eat. You're really pale."

"I'm fine," Bella argues.

"Just trust me," Alice says, keeping the girl's gaze on her. "We'll tell you everything."

"Alice," Edward says in an urgent undertone.

"No, Edward," she says, not moving her eyes from Bella's.

"I know." Edward's voice is different. Alice looks to him, away from Bella, and she understands, almost. "We'll talk," he says, to Bella. "I swear to you."

Bella nods slowly, and once her food arrives, she eats as though she's been starved, but that's what fear does to people, Alice supposes, even people who profess to be so used to it that it's not a surprise anymore.

They sit outside of the Swan house in Forks, in silence, before Bella is willing to speak. "I was talking to an old family friend. His name is Jacob Black, his dad's a Quileute elder, he was telling me things. About people. Who – who – God, this is stupid."

Alice shakes her head impatiently. This would explain everything. "Go on," she urges her.

"No, you're going to think I'm crazy," Bella insists.

"Just say it," Edward says flatly.

Bella falters. "I – you move so fast – you're – so – both of you, you're so... cold..."

"Say it," he repeats.

"He thinks you're a – a – " Bella forces herself to say it. "Vampire."

Edward nods, curtly, and when Bella turns to Alice, she just nods, cautiously watching her.

Bella might flee. This is one of those moments where her visions teeter, between firm, palpable reality and possibilities vanished into dust. Bella sits there, still, silent, pale. Then she asks, her voice changed, "Why would you tell me this?"

"Because you're not safe," Alice says gently. "Edward saw him – a person who wants to hurt you."

"A vampire," Bella interrupts.

"Yes," Edward cuts her off, impatiently. "And Alice knows what's going to happen, if you're not careful. You need to stay out of the woods. You need to keep from being alone too often. And last, you need to do what you can to keep from being a trouble magnet. Can you do that?"

"I don't try to be a trouble magnet," Bella argues back, just as petulant.

Alice sort of wants to laugh at how well these two, at least, are matched, but it's not the time. "You're not safe," she repeats. "Can you trust us, and listen to us, Bella?"

Bella looks at her, then nods, solemnly. "I should go inside," she says, faltering.

Alice touches her arm, again, and there's a moment where she can feel Bella flush before she sees it in her face. "We won't let anything happen to you," she says simply.

"Thank you," Bella whispers.

"We're going to take a drive tomorrow," Edward says, surprising even her. He's masking his tone, he's not annoyed, he's not trying to win an argument, he's nervous. "The three of us. Can you come with us, Bella?"

"Yes," Bella says, instantly, and opens the car door. "I'm... going to go."

"Goodnight," Alice sends her off with, and once the car door shuts, she glances at Edward. "I thought we were keeping our distance."

"I can't," Edward says, and he's so determined to not let her see his face in the rearview mirror that she knows how he's stewing, how alone he feels even while she's there, and she crawls into the passenger seat in order to comfort him with her hands in his hair and her lips to his, and all the love she can think at him.

_Don't be afraid, _she wills at him. _Everything is going to be okay. _And for a moment, it's almost as though he's listening.

* * *

Alice can't remember the last time she felt direct sunlight. It was probably a hunt. But she takes off her jacket, tosses it to the side to reveal her sundress, and waits for the sky to touch her and Edward, the unnatural, the glorious. Bella is gaping at both of them, even before the sun grazes their skin and light fills up the meadow.

"Oh my god," Bella whispers, in the silence.

Alice can't help but smile to herself.

Once she's recovered, Alice pulls the both of them into a close embrace, much to their surprises. "Come on, sit with me," she encourages them, and lays back on the ground, the grass, to appreciate the day.

"I didn't think you'd... I mean..." Bella still doesn't seem to be over what she's just seen. "Don't you... you know..."

"No," Edward says, directly, and settles down on the ground. "Here, between us, Bella."

They lay there, looking up at the sky. Alice smiles, then Edward twines his fingers with Bella's, and her throat tightens, as Bella's hand seeks out her own.

Alice presses a kiss to Bella's hand, her mind racing, whatever she has left for a soul thrilled to an extent she hasn't felt since the night Edward came back to her.

"There are a few more things we have to tell you," she says, meeting Bella's intent gaze. "I hope you're open-minded."

"You're vampires," Bella says, a bit faintly. "I don't think you can surprise me more than that."

Edward laughs, and Alice grins, completely happy in the moment, the moment she'd seen, that she'd known for so long before seeing it at all.

* * *

_She's a nurse, then. The influenza's gone and ravaged the cities. It's not the safest time to be around humans, if she intends to feed - though she hasn't yet, and never will, if she can help it - but she can help them, can't she? She's immune, unlike so many of them._

_And all at once, two weeks into her time at the hospital, there's a boy._

_At first, he's no one to her. Another poor soul at Death's door. Then she hears him whispering a prayer, and she remembers all at once, her chest tight, the rags gripped in her hands, white-knuckled._

_It's you._

_He was hers, even then._

* * *

Bella's in tears when Alice arrives in one of the less ostentatious cars to pick her up. Whether or not her father knows she's leaving is a thing that Alice should probably ask and check in about, but now doesn't seem to be the time. She leaves the car on as Bella approaches and pulls away the moment the door is shut and Bella is buckled in, and they're silent until the house is no longer in view.

"They said you were dangerous," Bella murmurs.

"You don't have to talk right now if you don't want to," Alice starts.

"The Quileute are so scared of you. Why?"

Alice holds onto the wheel, as if it'll make it easier to have this discussion. "You know why."

"No," Bella says, firmly. "You said you don't hurt people. Why would they be so afraid of you?"

"If that boy told you the story, then you know." Alice doesn't look away from the dark road ahead. "But we aren't like that. There was a treaty."

"Right," Bella says slowly. "But why does Jacob's dad hate you all so much?"

Alice tries not to shake her head or snap at her. "Can we listen to music instead of talking about this?"

Bella sighs. "I thought you would talk to me."

"I'm talking, I promise." Alice softens. "It's not something we like to talk about. It's hard to explain. They hate us, and there's nothing we can do about it, and they smell wrong, anyway, and I can't see them – "

"You can't – " Bella shakes her head. "You lost me."

"I can see things," Alice says, matter-of-factly. "Do you mind putting a CD in? I hate driving in the quiet." As Bella busies herself finding a CD, she goes on. "Things that could happen, that might happen. I can try to change them if they're bad, I can try to make them happen if they're good. It all depends on the choices people make."

"And you can't see the decisions the Quileute make? Why?"

Alice decides not to answer that one. "It's complicated," she says, as Bella slips a CD into the player. "You can stay over tonight, by the way."

"I – " Bella seems to have choked on nothing. "I couldn't."

"You can," Alice says. "Why not?"

"My dad?"

"Your dad doesn't have to know. We can get you back before the sun's up."

When Alice glances at her, Bella is wide-eyed. "But."

"Well, you didn't bring a change of clothes, did you?" Alice points out.

"No," Bella admits.

"All right." Alice pulls in to the road leading to the Cullen house. "Edward really wants to see you."

"Does he?" The blush is even in Bella's voice. "I... I don't want to get in between you. I understand that you two are..."

"Married," Alice finishes. "Yes. And?"

"I don't want to upset that," Bella says, plainly mortified when Alice steals a glance at her. "You're so great together. I, I know that he likes me, in his way, but I'm not going to do anything. I promise. I won't let him, either. Not that he would, try, I mean – "

"Bella," she interrupts, patient as ever. "It's all right."

"But it's not!" Bella's voice is agonized. "I'm so sorry! I couldn't have known, you were, everyone thinks you're brother and sister, and you have different last names and also you're only teenagers!"

"We're more than teenagers," Alice says, amused.

Bella huffs, not so much offended as horrified with herself. "You know what I mean!"

"Right," she agrees. "It's all right, Bella. I promise."

"If you're sure," Bella says, uncertain.

Alice flashes her a friendly smile. "I'm sure," she assures her.

* * *

It's the same as in the meadow. Bella is between them in the bed, one of Alice's nightgowns short and revealing on her due to the height difference, and Edward is tangling his fingers with her, trying to reassure her.

"It's all right," Edward murmurs to Bella.

"No," Bella says, faintly, stubbornly. "I don't understand."

Then Edward shifts, moves over Bella, and kisses her. It's as though she's been struck by lightning, and Alice smiles, knowing that feeling, almost, as she clings to Edward as though breathing him in; then, he breaks away. Bella is breathless, and Alice gives her a moment before she brushes the dark hair behind her ear and fondly leans in to kiss her as well.

Alice decides she loves kissing Bella. She loves the softness of her lips, the supple arch of Bella's body beneath hers, and she affectionately bites Bella's lip before releasing her. "Do you want to stay now?" she asks, playful as ever.

"Don't tease her," Edward says, but he's amused.

"Oh my god," Bella breathes. "I don't – "

"We have to take it slow," Alice says, trailing a finger up Bella's thigh. "You're still pretty fragile."

"Yeah, I do tend to break bones," Bella says, shakily, practically quivering with lust, and turns to Edward as he guides his face to hers for another long kiss.

"But we're creative," Edward says to Bella's entranced face once he's pulled away. "What do you want?"

"I want you," Bella says to Edward, then she turns, much to her surprise, to Alice. "I want – I want both of you. If you – the way you love each other. Just – please. _Please_."

"Well it's not going to be exactly," Edward says, with barely restrained amusement. "You're still human, after all."

"Be nice," Alice chides him. "She's being sweet."

"And she still smells so sweet." He's looking at her as though he might devour her in any sense. Alice touches his face, moves his gaze to hers, and kisses him thoroughly, reminds him that she's there, and then they break to examine a squirming Bella Swan.

"Where to start," Edward says, slowly.

"I have an idea," Alice answers, and the wicked smile she musters is completely worth the terrified, anticipating face Bella makes then.

* * *

Baseball is silly. That's the main reason Alice loves it. She also loves bowling and volleyball, both hypothetically, they look so incredibly fun to play, but they're both so very... public, or sunny. She's lucky that Edward has always been so keen on baseball, or they might never get to play it.

Bella is beside herself having to hold onto Edward and run half the way, but Alice cheers her up with a kiss on each cheek and she goes to sit and watch as soon as they've really, thoroughly convinced her it'd be a bad idea to participate.

And it's a blast. It's wonderful to be outside, for them all to be really themselves. She hasn't seen Edward this happy in years, and so much of it feels like it's Bella. She's a sea change. Nothing's been the same since Edward got her scent and fell for her.

Alice prepares to pitch at Emmett again, smirking past him at Edward, and then she's not seeing the baseball diamond at all, she's just seeing – and the others are gathering around her, she can sense them just barely pulling together in a defensive position – "They're here. Can you – you must smell them."

Bella's jogged up to them. "Who?" she asks, voice strained. "Who is it?"

"Another coven," Carlisle says grimly.

"Maybe they won't come here," Rosalie says, but even she doesn't seem to be buying it.

"We have Bella with us," Edward says, low and dangerous. "They'll find us."

The other coven is there in an instant, all casual as anything. Alice doesn't have to read minds to know that Edward would fly off the handle to attack them in an instant, without any obvious provocation. It's enough that they're looking at Bella. It may have only been a handful of nights, but it seems too obvious that she's theirs.

"What a game you're playing." Alice recognizes him from her vision, but he's never been there before with the vampire she faintly knows as James. This one's an old vampire, not older than Alice, though, nonchalant and olive-skinned with long black hair. "We didn't realize this was claimed hunting ground. I'm Laurent, this is James and Victoria."

Victoria is beautiful, all wild red hair and lithe posture; James, she knows. She knows those eyes of his, those of the raptor, the predator. "It is claimed," Carlisle confirms. Edward is holding Bella still, with good reason; she seems to want to bolt, probably out of good old-fashioned human instinct. "My name is Carlisle, this is my family. Esme, Emmett, Rosalie, Alice, Edward, Bella."

James's eyes linger on Bella. "Yes," he speaks up. "We won't hunt on your grounds. We've already fed, for now. I'm sure we'll find something to help us get by."

Alice can feel Edward step forward, and she urgently whispers, "No, no," pulling at his sleeve, but he ignores her. "You should leave our hunting ground," Edward says, commanding.

"We will. As soon as we're ready," Laurent says, and he puts an arm out to stop James from moving forward. "For now – we'll leave you to your game."

"Of course," Carlisle cuts in. "Emmett, Rosalie, let's get started. Alice, Edward – you should go back to the Jeep, I'm sure we've forgotten something there."

"Of course," Edward says, immediately, icily, and Alice tenses as the future shifts in her head, she can feel the weight of the choices being made – then Edward pulls Bella onto his back and begins to run for the Jeep. They pounce in that instant – _animals_, Alice thinks, disdainfully – but she has to do something, to keep them from everyone she cares about, from ripping a poor innocent fascinating girl limb from limb because they brought her into the open, foolishly.

Alice is more good as an oracle than a fighter, but she can fight, so she will. Emmett tries to push her away, and Rosalie is clawing away at Victoria, but she leaps onto Laurent, determined to bring their leader down if nothing else. He's not as powerful as she is, and if she focuses with laser-accuracy she can predict each move, then she rips his throat out and watches the others.

Victoria stops dead, takes a solid hit to the head from Rosalie and hits the ground, then is up on her haunches and shouts, "James, go!" before bolting for the trees.

"After them," Emmett yells.

"No," Carlisle says, commanding, and Alice realizes what she's doing, what she's done, the blood in her mouth, and she spits it out, stands above the body. "We need to protect Bella."

Esme wipes blood from her mouth as well, at attention. "What can we do?" she asks.

"Arizona," Alice says, without thinking. They look to her. It makes sense, though. "Her mother lives in Arizona. It's... possible, of course. But no matter how well he tracks her – we – _I_ – I can stop him finding her."

"He's very clever, Alice," Carlisle says after a pause.

"I know," Alice says, a bit sniping. "So am I."

"It's an idea," Esme interjects. "Let's go home. We'll make plans there, where the hills don't have ears."

Alice realizes only then how shaky she feels. How easy it would have been to have Edward, Bella, her family ripped from her in that moment.

No. She would – and will – do anything to keep that from coming to pass.

* * *

So plans are great and all, but now Alice can't stop pacing in her and Edward's room.

"I can hear you," Rosalie shouts from the next room.

"No you can't," Alice shouts back.

"Do you need to yell?" Esme calls from downstairs.

Alice huffs and goes into Rosalie's room. "What do you expect me to do?"

"Edward will be back soon," Rosalie says, calm as anything behind her copy of this month's Vanity Fair.

"If things don't go horribly wrong," Alice points out.

"Your plan is air-tight," Rosalie says. "They almost always are."

"Someone's life is literally on the line, Rose, I don't want to rely on 'almost always air-tight' – "

"You're a psychic," Rosalie interrupts, shutting the magazine and looking up at her. "I think you might have managed it."

"I can't tell the future, I can tell possible futures," Alice argues, her mind racing with fretting the more she talks. "And there are possible futures where this doesn't work at all!"

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"You're not listening to me." Rosalie picks up the magazine again. "Go on and pace, I can ignore you."

Alice shakes her head at Rosalie and goes downstairs again, to hug Esme and put her face in her mother's shoulder. "I can't think straight," she confesses.

"That's love, Alice," Esme says, wise as ever, and Alice imagines her face might burn if she was alive.

Then it's as simple as knowing whether it's night or day. Edward is home. She rushes to him and kisses him. "She's okay," she checks.

"So far," Edward confirms. "You'll need to be watching."

"Of course," Alice says immediately. "Same Bella time, same Bella channel."

Edward smiles, just enough, through the worry, and she kisses him again. "Let's watch some TV," she suggests.

"Not the Style Network," Edward half-asks.

"Oops, sorry, there it is," Alice says, feigning surprise. "Where's the remote again?"

"I don't know, you're the psychic."

She leans against him, the comfort of one of her loves helping her bear the idea of the loss of another, newer, barely realized potential.

* * *

It all comes crashing down when she sees the ballet studio.

"He's there," she says, in horror, terror, and all those awful things at once and she just wants to cry. She does her best not to cry through the plane trip, and it's intolerable to not just run full-scale, vampire-style through the streets of Phoenix, to find her. They drive as fast as they can and there's Bella, her sweet blood pooling on the ground, and there's the longest instant where Alice feels her heart breaking.

Edward attacks James. She goes to Bella, who's still there, still alive, just barely, delusional. "It's okay," she whispers to Bella. "It's all right, I'm here. I'm going to take care of you."

"Help me," Bella murmurs. "He was going to hurt my mother – "

"We've got it handled," she lies to Bella. "We love you, I promise we'll all get through this, your mom, the three of us, it's all going to be okay. Just stay still, stay awake, talk to me."

"I dunno what to say," Bella says thickly, and Alice looks at the bite, she presses her mouth to the wound and she tastes Bella's blood, thick and intoxicating, but she controls herself. She makes herself think, she reminds herself she is not this animal.

_there's a future where Bella is with her, smiling, sweet, alive_

She seeks through the wound for the poison, and finds it, takes it in. Bella is groaning and twisting underneath her and she pulls away, and things are going to be okay.

There's this terrible sound behind Alice, and she's up and flying at James too late, Edward is falling dead to the ballet studio floor, and she collapses to her knees, helpless, and James laughs this horrible, satisfied laugh, and he's got her pressed to the floor.

"Always wanted to get my hands on you," James whispers to her, somehow affectionate. "Thanks for helping me tick a box on my to-do list." His fangs flash, and she struggles, kicks him, flails until she hits him in the face and he recoils. She rolls on top of him with some effort, and, without any pithy comments, tears out his throat as well.

When it's over, Alice tries to see Edward. She tries to see him waking up, she tries to see him with her and Bella.

But it's like all those futures with him are dissolving into dust before her.

He's gone.

* * *

Bella is still human. Thank whomever for small mercies. Alice can't imagine how much harder it would have been to explain everything away if both Edward and Bella hadn't survived the attack.

(She still hasn't come to terms with it, that Edward is gone, forever. She wishes so hard sometimes that she imagines she can hear him playing piano, the gentle percussion, the metronome ticking softly behind it. She imagines he's there beside her in her bed, but there's no one there. Not him.)

There's Bella. Beautiful, fascinating, tragic Bella. She feels blessed, by fate, by whatever, that Bella didn't just turn away once Edward was gone. She thinks, in her worst moments, that Bella preferred Edward so much more, that Alice is second best. But then Bella presses her cheek to Alice's shoulder and smiles so broadly (but sadly) that she imagines that Bella feels the same. Maybe Bella doesn't take love for granted; maybe she sees the same thing in Alice that Alice sees in her. There's hope. There's life. There's a happy ending, or happy enough.

Alice presses a kiss to a sleeping Bella's mouth, and curls up beside her warmth. And for a moment, things are that same, beautiful, sweet shade of right.


End file.
